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Patrick Galvin
| birth_place = Cork, Ireland | death_place = Cork, Ireland | occupation = Poet, Dramatist | nationality = Irish | citizenship = Ireland | notableworks = Song for a Raggy Boy (1990), Christ in London (1960), Cry the Believers (1960), We Do It For Love (1975) | influences = Federico García Lorca | influenced = Patrick Cotter, Gerry Murphy, William Wall }} Patrick Galvin (15 August 1927 - 9 May 2011) was an Irish poet, singer, playwright, and prose and screen writer.Billy Ramsell, Patrick Galvin (Ireland, 1927-2011), Poetry International. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Life Galvin was born in Cork's inner city, at a time of great political transition in Ireland. His mother was a Republican and his father a Free Stater, which gave rise to ongoing political tension within the household and later informed his well loved poem "My Father Spoke with Swans" and his autobiographical memoir Song For a Poor Boy. An autodidact, he came to know and love literature through the Russian, French and Irish classics. His early poetry shows the influences of Gaelic poetry whilst his later poetry reflects more international rhythms and themes. He had grown up during the time of the Spanish Civil war under the shawl of his mother's Republican politics and later discovered a great affinity with the Andalusian poet, Federico García Lorca; these influences are evident in his epic poem about Irish leader Michael Collins, The White Monument. His childhood ended dramatically when he was sent to Daingean industrial school, noted for its abuse of young people in its care. This experience had a powerful influence on his earlier poetry which expresses the fear and brutality of that time: Come fifteen now, the flogging belt, the prison cell, The cruel days, the friendships hanged and cold, The dead beat of winter and the hungry bell, The very young are battered and grow old. And every day they stand about and watch and stare, The shaven heads, the broken ribs, the iron rod. And every night they weep an empty eye And curse the hand that killed Almighty God.from "The Exiles", Heart of Grace, 1957. In his prose memoir Song For a Raggy Boy he contextualises those experiences within the Europe of the second world war. Irritated by Ireland’s neutral stance he joined the Royal Air Force in 1943. His anti-war memoir Song for a Flyboy from 2003 records his war experiences and his play The Devil’s Own People from 1976 denounces Ireland’s neutrality in the face of fascism and the Holocaust. Career After the breakdown of his first marriage, at the age of 21, he went on to establish himself as a folksinger, song writer and collector, recording 9 volumes of folk songs and publishing Irish Songs of Resistance 1798-1922.Irish Songs of Resistance. New York: Folklore Press, 1956. He travelled widely during this period going behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ to East Germany as a troubadour. These experiences marked his work and his personal life. He began to publish poetry in many leading English and Irish journals and he co-founded and edited the literary magazine Chanticleer.Chanticleer His first collection of poetry Heart of Grace, 1957 was closely followed by the second Christ in London, 1960. At that time he was also in the process of establishing himself as a playwright in London and Dublin where his work was closely monitored by the Catholic Church hierarchy in Ireland, which found that his play Cry the Believers was not one "to which young, impressionable minds could be exposed without risk to faith".Irish Times He was given the reputation of being the "Enfant terrible of the Irish Theatre" by one Irish critic. He came back to Ireland in the 1960s but, unable to adapt to the conservatism of that time, he returned to London and spent intervals abroad in Israel. In 1973 he returned to Ireland, this time to Belfast as Writer in Residence at the Lyric Theatre. It also saw the publication of his third collection of poetry The Woodburners. That period of time with the Lyric Theatre established Galvin firmly as an exciting dramatist. His groundbreaking play We Do It For Love (the first satire about "the Troubles") broke all box office records for an Irish play at the Lyric. Through his work there he was influential in inspiring a new generation of writers in the north of Ireland. His final play at the Lyric, My Silver Bird, was an operetta based on the life and times of Grace O’Malley, dramatically culminating in the battle of Kinsale and the fall of the Gaelic order. The score was composed by Peadar O Riada. The play was first staged the night after Bobby Sands died and due to the prevailing political climate it was prevented from travelling to and showing at Cork Opera House as scheduled. Galvin later went to live in Spain where he completed his 4th collection of poetry Folktales for the General. He returned to Cork in the 1980s and he began to work on his memoirs Song for a Poor Boy, Song For a Raggy Boy and Song for a Flyboy. In 1997 he wrote the screen play for Song For a Raggy Boy which got its world premiere at Cork Film Festival in 2003. Patrick was Writer in Residence with East Midlands Arts (UK), DunLaoghaire Rathdown Council, Portlaoise Prison and finally with University College Cork where he was awarded a Doctorate of Literature in 2006. Galvin cofounded the 'Poetry Now Festival', which went on to become Ireland’s leading poetry festival. With his wife Mary Johnson he co-founded the Munster Literature Centre in Cork which has given birth to the Frank O'Connor Festival and to the 'Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, one of the largest in the world. Later life The Independent wrote of him: "He was astronomically tall, towering over any company he was in. He dressed well, with a touch of the Spanish grandee, read his poems beautifully in his deep brogue, and had a fine singing voice. He loved the public role of the disorderly poet, but played it creatively, without falling into the self-destructive booziness of Behan and Dylan Thomas."James Pettifer, "Patrick Galvin: Poet and dramatist who chronicled the lives of his fellow natives of Cork", The Independent, May 30, 2011. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Throughout his life he has adapted his own work and other works for both BBC radiohttp://www.suttonelms.org.uk/monday-play.html and RTÉ radio. He travelled widely giving readings of both his prose and poetry, much of which is recorded in the Library of Congress in Washington. In 1984 he was elected to Aosdána. Patrick suffered a stroke in 2003. In spite of this, in 2005, the year of the City of Culture Cork, he co-translated the collection of poetry ‘Everything But You’http://www.librarything.com/work/782998 from the original poetry of Turkish poet, Yilmaz Odabashi. Latterly the constraints of his lengthy illness and his inability to give creative expression to his thoughts on the current state of Ireland, with its culture of greed, exploitation and refusal to deal with systematic physical and sexual clerical abuse, contributed greatly to his demise. He was survived by his daughter Grainne and son Macdara from his marriage to Mary Johnson and his daughter Christine Bygraves from a previous marriage. His widow, Mary Johnson, died a few months after his death. He was predeceased by his oldest son Patrick Newley in 2009. Recognition University College Cork awarded Galvin an honorary D. Litt.on 2 June 2006.Patrick Galvin, Ricorso. Web, Jan. 18 2017. Song for a Raggy Boy was made into a 2003 movie directed by Aisling Walsh, starring Aidan Quinn, Iain Glen, and Marc Warren.Song for a Raggy Boy (2003), Internet Movie Database. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Publications Poetry *''Heart of Grace''. London: Linden Press, 1957. *''Christ in London''. London: Linden Press, 1960. *''Five Irish Poets'' (by Anthony Blinco, Patrick Galvin, Seán Lucy, Donal Murphy, & Seán O'Críadáin). Cork: Mercier Press, 1970. *''Letter to the Minister''. Brighton, Sussex, UK: Tone Press, 1970. *''By Nature Diffident: A poem''. Brighton, Sussex, UK: Tone Press, 1971. *''Letter to a British Soldier on Irish Soil''. Highlands Park, MI: Red Hanrahan Press, 1972. *''The Wood Burners''. Dublin: New Writer's Press, 1973. *''The Prisoners of the Tower'', Cork University Press 1979 *''Man on the Porch: Selected poems''. London: Martin, Brian & O'Keeffe, 1979. ISBN 0-85616-161-6 *''Folk Tales for the General''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1989. *''The Mad Woman of Cork: Poems''. Cork: Three Spires Press, 1991. *''The Death of Art O'Leary'', 1994 *''New and Selected Poems'' (edited by Robert Welch). Cork: Cork University Press, 1996. Plays *''Three Plays''. Belfast: Threshold, Lyric Players Theatre, 1976. Non-fiction *''Song for a Poor Boy: A Cork childhood''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1990, *''Song For a Raggy Boy: A Cork boyhood''. Dublin: Raven Arts, 1991. *''Song for a Fly Boy''. published in: **''The Raggy Boy Trilogy''. Dublin: New Island, 2002. Edited *''Songs of Resistance, 1169-1923''. London: Workers' Music Association, 1955; New York: Folklore Press, 1956. *''Dun Laoghaire Rathdown: County anthology''. Dun Laoghaire: Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, 1996. *''A Sense of Place: Leix anthology''. Portlaoise?, Ireland: Laois County Council, 1997. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Paul Galvin, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 18, 2017. Plays performed *''And Him Stretched'', first performed 1961 Unity Theatre, London; 1962 Eblana Theatre, Dublin *''Cry The Believers'', 1962 Eblana Theatre, Dublin *''Boy in the Smoke'', 1965 BBC Wednesday Play *''Nightfall to Belfast'', 1973 Lyric Theatre, Belfast *''The Last Burning'', 1974 Lyric Theatre, Belfast *''We Do It For Love'', 1975 Lyric Theatre, Belfast *''The Devil's Own People'', 1976 Gaiety Theatre, Dublin *''The Class of '39'', 1980 BBC Radio 4 *''My Silver Bird'', 1981 Lyric Theatre, Belfast *''City Child, Come Trailing Home'', 1983, RTÉ Radio *''Landscape and Seascape'', 1983, RTÉ Radio *''Quartet for Nightown'', 1984, RTÉ Radio *''Wolfe'', 1984, RTÉ Radio *''The Cage'', 2006, Cork Arts Theatre, Cork Audio / video *''Irish Drinking Songs'' (LP). New York: Riverside, 195-? *''Irish Street Songs'' (LP). New York: Riverside, 195-? *''Irish Rebel Songs, Volume 1: The Great Rebellion, 1798'' (LP). Granada Hills, CA: Stinson Records, 1962. *''Irish Rebel Songs. Volume 2: The Young Irelanders and The Fenian Brotherhood'' (LP). Granada Hills, CA: Stinson Records, 1963. *''Irish Rebel Songs. Volume 3: The Black and Tan War, the Easter Uprising, the Civil War'' (LP). Granada Hills, CA: Stinson Records, 1963. Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat. See also *List of Irish poets References External links ;Poems *Patrick Galvin (Ireland, 1927-2011) at Poetry International (profile & 8 poems) ;Audio / video *Patrick Galvin at YouTube * Podcast interview with Patrick Galvin recorded in March 2010 and Early recordings of Patrick reading some of his work ;About *Galvin, Patrick at Irish Writers Online *Patrick Galvin at Aosdána *Patrick Galvin at Ricorso Category:1927 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Irish dramatists and playwrights Category:Irish male poets Category:Male dramatists and playwrights Category:People from Cork (city) Category:Aosdána members Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century dramatists and playwrights Category:Irish poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets